I am grateful to the South African poet, Vusi Mchunu, for the following elegy dedicated to the Afro-German poet, educator and activist May Ayim.
Vusi writes, “It is twenty five years since the poet, co-founder of the Initiative Afro-Germans and feminist activist, May Ayim, ended her life by falling from high-rise social housing building in Kreuzberg, Berlin. This is a meditation to beseech both her African and her Germanic ancestors, to calm her down, re-assure her, and to assist her tormented, roaming spirit as it transforms into a supportive, caring and energetic ancestor. The dedication is an imaginary companion in the eternal trip of our dear departed, ‘Princess of militancy, beauty, charm, spells and words’, May Ayim.”
Atome ne nkosuahene – I am left only with egg-shells.
Had my mother or my father been alive, it would not have
Been egg-shells, but a whole fowl, a full chicken!
Lament of Ashanti-Akan in Ghana
Wailing her woe, the widow old, her hair upbound,
for Beowulf’s death, sung in her sorrow.
Round brands of the pyre a wall they built, the worthiest
Ever that wit could prompt in their wisest men.
Lament of King Béowulf’s wife
(Old Norse, North Germanic, Anglo-Saxon Paganism)
It is a long fall from the concrete heights of Kreuzberg
It is a long way to the hill of Alt St. Matthaeus Cemetery
Hush now May, my child. Goddesses are here. Yes, we
Wake-keepers Isis, Asase Ya of Fertility, Nerthus the German.
Only now do we pour water on your throat as you embark on
A twenty five years’ journey to open the passage of your soul
To Okra. Kra’s undying spirit swimming, climbing the mountain
Into our cosmos. We take charge to collect your pieces of flesh.
Isis’s song makes you whole. See the sponge, soap, warm water.
To wash your hair and body three times. Softening skin with oils.
Draping your elegance in white linen. A sprinkle of cowrie shells.
Your Kente-turban in red and black!
It is a long fall from the concrete heights of Kreuzberg
It is a long way to the hill of Alt St. Matthaeus Cemetery
Come now May, my child. Closer to the Germanic Pagan pyre
I, Nerthus, high priestess, am dizzy from this wake of joints,
This eulogy of frankincense, for a princess of spells and words.
Here your grave goods. Perfume, rubies. Spear, pepper spray.
Silence! The drum and the dirge on your beauty. March of boots.
Stay alert. We lay your body on the wooden pyre. Crack of cremation.
Twelve horses. A bugle. Twelve women warriors. Mound and Circles.
Join us in the Blod and Sumble after-party. Let’s clap. Ho jig heave!
Heady palm wine. Drunk on Pagan Riesling!
It is a long fall from the concrete heights of Kreuzberg
It is a long way to the hill of Alt St. Matthaeus Cemetery
Bear with us, May, my baby. Ritual and time are never late.
To escape repeat for the living, yours must be a winding journey.
Look, your loved ones in the net of helplessness, drowning in floods.
Hotness and redness of pepper. Pain and grief. Mourn and laughter.
Your Afro-German commune. Your cross-over boat in Hamburg.
The miniature ladder of death. A ladder not mounted by only one person.
Let’s walk with the white, flowing gowns of Germanic priestesses. Tall.
Walk to consecrated groves of rituals. Upon islands, picturesque lakes.
Where perpetual fires burn! Where the living-dead connect!
By Vusi Mchunu
Notes
The starting point of African philosophy is the belief in the immortality of life. A Ghanaian scholar wrote:
To the Akan, death is a return to the World of Spirits. Whenever a child is born in this world,’ according to Ashanti belief, ‘a ghost-mother mourns the loss of her child in the spirit world.’ And whenever there is a death in this world, there is a welcome in the spirit world.
K. A. Busia,
The Challenge of Africa,
Praeger (1962)
Before any other people, the Egyptians introduced the concept of eternal life and immanent moral justice, opening the way for humanist universalism.
Samir Amin,
Eurocentrism,
1988
It is important to stress that Egypt derived this outlook from the philosophy of ordinary African communities in villages and valleys of the Great Lakes, south of Egypt. Queen Hatshepsut, Pharaoh and King of the 18th Egyptian Dynasty(155‑1295 B.C.), undertook a legendary boat-fleet trip down the Red Sea, to Punt, towards Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia for firming up her reign with a direct line to her African ancestry. She returned with fresh High Priestly rituals, bushes, trees, seedlings of sacred and exotic plants, beauty norms, perfume, foods, clothing, fashion and scrolls of knowledge.
In the African Spiritual System, ritual is key to reconnect and reconcile a body that died unnaturally, the soul-spirit of the deceased, the site of the tragedy and the burial site. In Nguni cultures, the body of one who died in a crash, a fall, massacre, on the burial date, remains outside the family enclosure as the farewell ceremony continues. To avoid a repeat of such a tragedy amongst the surviving family members. To curb a mistaken imitation by those who were close or who idolise the deceased. And to introduce and beg ancestors of the deceased to welcome her/him into that higher realm of the afterlife.
Death inflicts deep pain and trauma, Ukuxebuka kwenyama in isiZulu. A striking psycho-therapy ritual is the wailing, and the recounting, over-and-over again, of how Death came to the family, taking the particular individual. This is repeated over-and-over again, so that this painful event is accepted deep down by the mind and emotions of those who have suffered the trauma. It is psychotherapy of the highest and most insightful order.
The completion of the burial rituals and offerings is not the end of the process. There are rituals which must be performed to cleanse and normalize the relatives left behind, especially the immediate family, the wife, the wives, husband and offspring of the departed. Then, follows the happy ritual and offering, marking and facilitating the return-in-spirit of the person who died. The departed is reunited with the family, takes his/her place fully and legitimately in the pantheon of Ancestors, and takes occupancy of a particular room or place in the home, where he/she is to be approached and addressed by family members in times of need. In Nguni cultures, this is known as Ukubuyisa ceremony. There is triumphant and happy singing, dancing, and thanksgiving –Ubuyile! He/she has returned!
Death in African Society
from the Professor Herbert Vilakazi Papers,
University of South Africa.
It appears that the Germanic Pagan, the African, the Ashanti and Akan death and afterlife rituals need re-visiting.
Ritual and time are never late!
Vusi Mchunu
